October 22, 2021–July 31, 2022
Finissage: July 30, 2:41pm
E-WERK Luckenwalde and Mendelsohnhalle (Hutfabrik)
Saturday, July 30, 2022
Train intervention: Bahnhof Südkreuz Berlin 2:41pm and arrive in Luckenwalde at 3:12pm
Train intervention: Berlin Südkreuz 3:47pm and arrive in Luckenwalde at 4:20pm
Finissage and all exhibitions open for the final time for POWER NIGHTS: Being Mothers curated by Lucia Pietroiusti in collaboration with Katharina Worf, Helen Turner and Adriana Tranca.
Together with Solistenensemble Kaleidoskop and composer Ethan Braun, Isabel Lewis and Sissel Tolaas produce a dynamic performance that takes the audience on a journey and engages all of their senses. The public goes through the partitur H SPACE H, which uses smells, motions, and sounds as guiding factors to heighten the experience of the corporeal transit through the space and time between Luckenwalde and Berlin. On July 30, H SPACE H will be featured as part of POWER NIGHTS: Being Mothers’ finale at E-WERK Luckenwalde.
The project has gone through several stages. On April 30, it began as a scent molecules intervention on a carriage of the RE3 train traveling from Berlin/Südkreuz to Luckenwalde. It was created utilizing smell recordings made by Tolaas while conducting research for the project at the E-WERK Luckenwalde power station. On June 11, a different train voyage took place, but this one had gestures and minute movements that Isabel Lewis had choreographed and developed.
The last performance of H SPACE H will take place in Luckenwalde’s Mendelsohnhalle (alte Hutfabrik) on July 30. Once more, the work will begin with a rail travel on the RE3 to Luckenwalde from Berlin Südkreuz. Joining the march to E-WERK and then on to the Mendelsohn Hat Factory is open to visitors. Ethan Braun’s intricate audio composition, performed by Solistenensemble Kaleidoskop, will be combined with the sounds, smells, and motions of a magnificent building.
Isabel Lewis, Sissel Tolaas, Kaleidoskop, and Ethan Braun will fill the space with noises, fragrances, and choreography that play and experiment with various viewpoints and senses inside the building, in the expansive halls of the former Hat Factory. The architecture’s notable long sightlines, which metaphorically mirror the railway cars, and acoustic circumstances will be brought to life with specially created noises, smells, and movements.
The performers communicate with each other’s instruments, fragrance molecules, and motions by using small, delicate hand gestures as impulse generators and codes. The many noises from the train ride are captured and then replicated as echoes. The impulses from the other performers are then further added and transmitted throughout the area. Performers and musicians will be circling, moving, singing, and playing instruments as they continually create new variants, combinations, and constellations.
Over the previous twelve months, POWER NIGHTS: Being Mothers, of which H SPACE H is the concluding chapter, has been presented by E-WERK Luckenwalde. In an effort to support new exhibition formats that are centered on slow curation and sustainable slowdown, the program is presented as a long-term, cumulative show. A series of chapters by Himali Singh Soin, Karrabing Film Collective, Revital Cohen & Tuur Van Balen, Cooking Sections, Tabita Rezaire, Isabel Lewis, and Sissel Tolaas in collaboration with Solistenensemble Kaleidoskop and Ethan Braun unveiled newly commissioned works beginning in July 2021 with Sun & Sea by Rugil Barzdiukait, Vaiva Grainyt, and Lina Lapelyt.
“Taking inspiration from the institution’s experimental beginnings, Being Mothers has been an incredible exercise in what can be achieved by slowing down. The programme was profoundly motivated by all of the inspiring conversations we had over two years with the artists and their collaborators, who advised and pushed us to reconsider curatorial programming in response to planetary and existential burn out. We wanted the programme to constantly grow, shift, adapt and be infused with new meanings through the fresh constellations of works that emerged over the course of a year, producing new, unexpected narratives and viewpoints, which will continue to grow and anchor themselves at E-WERK as legacy projects. It has been a springboard for new considerations for our future programme, and how we can pilot and implement sustainable ways of curating.” —Lucia Pietroiusti, Helen Turner, Katharina Worf and Adriana Tranca.
Stay tuned for news of E-WERK Luckenwalde’s 2023 programme, and POWER NIGHT 2024’s guest international curator. See kunststrom.com for details.
E-WERK Luckenwalde commissioned H SPACE H. Funding for POWER NIGHTS: Being Mothers, 2021 is provided by Fonds Darstellende Künste with assistance from the UBS, E.ON Stiftung, and Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media. With the generous assistance of Serpentine Gallery, Bureau des arts plastiques of the French Institute, Germany, and the French Culture Minister, E-WERK Luckenwalde and Biennale Gherdania commissioned Womb Wisdom. Serpentine Galleries, E-WERK Luckenwalde, and Palais de Tokyo jointly commissioned The Family (A Zombie Movie). Serpentine Galleries, Prince Claus Fund, E-WERK Luckenwalde, HKW, and WePresent have all contributed to the realization of Static Range.
